FATHER, WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME TO MY PARISH PLEASE?

I attended a Requiem Mass today. 

It was certainly a tribute to my classmate at Sacred Heart College Wanganui (colloquially known, according to a visiting Redemptorist priest during our time there, as 'the red light on the hill'). 

A tribute not just in the usual way, with photos and flowers and eulogies, but a tribute to her faith. The congregation actually seemed to know what was going on. They stood at the appropriate moments without being told. They prayed the responses. I wasn't looking, but it seemed like a lot of people received Holy Communion. Everyone including small children in the rows in front of me, filed out and queued up.

But not before they were invited by the celebrant to receive if they were Catholics in good standing with the Church. If they weren't Catholics but wanted a blessing, they should go forward with hands crossed on the chest. 

The Gospel was John 6: 48-58, the Bread of Life Discourse. You can't get more Catholic than that, and Father made the most of the opportunity. It was straightforward, honest-to-God, flat out orthodox, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church doctrine. When he concluded, the woman beside me said, "What a great homily".

I don't suppose it was Father, who hasn't been in the parish long, who was responsible for the bunch of flowers sited centre-stage where the tabernacle should be. At least the Blessed Sacrament was there, and clearly visible. Just side-lined and offside. But hey, we've got used to that. (No we haven't!)

On the way out, another friend and survivor of that superb school for Catholic girls, SHC, (now, unhappily and typically of our times, demolished to make room for a pretentious old people's home) said to Father, "Would you like to come to my parish, please?"

I didn't hear his reply, but I did explain to my friend when we got outside that he couldn't really, because he was going back to the States. 

"Why?" she asked.

"I should say, quite likely," I said, "because of what we've just heard. His homilies". I could have added, the fact that he is demonstrably very careful to avoid sacrilegious communions. 

Orthodoxy is not the way we do things in the Diocese of Palmerston North. But "orthodoxy is the first condition of sanctity" (Cardinal Pie, one of the greatest figures of the French Church in the XIX century and greatly admired by Pope St Pius X). That might go a long way towards explaining why the Diocese of Palmerston North has no saints and isn't likely to acquire any.

There are other reasons for Father's return to the States: an expired visa and an episode of ill-health. But there are, in Father's own words, "other significant considerations". The Diocese of Palmerston North is losing a beautiful priest, and we don't know all the reasons why.

Oh, in case you're still wondering, the celebrant at today's Requiem was Fr Bryan Buenger, of Tararua Parish.